Wikipad might have gotten an early jump on building an Android gaming tablet, but Archos isn’t about to give the company a free pass. It’s working on a gamer-friendly slate of its own, unsurprisingly dubbed the GamePad.

Archos has chosen to go with a 7-inch display, which should make the GamePad slightly more comfortable to hold for extended periods than the 10-inch Wikipad. The GamePad is also scaling back the processor, using a 1.5GHz chip instead of a more high-end quad-core one. That’s textbook Archos, of course, as the company tends to build devices for the budget conscious consumer.

Do you really need integrated gaming controls on an Android tablet? Most games are built for touch, so you can probably get along without just fine. But for those who can’t get enough emulator action, the physical d-pad and buttons will be a welcome addition. It’s also virtually guaranteed that studios will start offering more controller-friendly games in the near future — as more Android devices like the GamePad, Wikipad, and Ouya console — arrive on the scene.

The GamePad’s biggest selling feature might not be the controls anyway, but its price. It’s reportedly going on sale in Europe for less than €150 (about $190) in October, and its stateside price could end up even lower. Archos has yet to announce when (or even if) the GamePad will cross the pond, however, so you may have to track down an online shop that offers international shipping if you want to get your hands on one as soon as possible.